For me at least, the question isn't about whether he can survive in the league or not. The question is will he be BPA at #12, and on a larger scale, can a team afford to let players coast on defense? Can a player that has never put an effort in on that side of the court (whether he has been told to preserve his effort/fouls is not only beside the point, but a cop out) suddenly learn how to when the competition is so much steeper it's hardly even comparable and at a relatively old age? I think allowing players to coast on D creates a toxic environment on a team as it creates almost a class system among players and it undermines the base principle of working as a team to win as a team. It undermines the notion that everyone has to put in the same effort, regardless of their natural ability or productivity. Champion teams generally don't undermine that philosophy, and the only exceptions are so stacked with talent that they're undeniable (early 2000's Lakers are the only to come to mind). The Jazz will never be that team. I don't believe a team based in an area like Utah has many, if any, advantages at all, and there would not be a margin of error to allow some kid with a shot to undermine the true nature of a winning team.
Jimmer can probably - at worst - come off the bench and help a team score some silly buckets. He might even learn to care about not embarrassing himself on one side of the court on every possession of every game. He might learn that shooting 30-foot shots isn't really practical and doesn't help you win. Who ****ing knows. But we've seen none of that. Rather, his defense has somehow gotten WORSE with time as has his shot selection. If the Jazz are really looking at him to be their franchise PG like Chad Ford alleges then they are making a totally retarded bet. I have reservations about him coming off the bench, having him play against starting PGs and playing major minutes projects to be a cripplingly retarded move to me in terms of what that means for championship aspirations. Go down the list of starting PGs in the NBA and NO ONE can HONESTLY tell me or anyone else Jimmer would be anything but an embarrassment against more than half of them.
Teams that are serious about a championship cannot afford trash like that. If Jimmer wasn't a Jo Bro from BYU, people would say his play was pure hopper garbage.